Green Arrow #38 Review

What a Rush!

Written by: Ben Percy
Art by: Juan Ferreyra and Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 7, 2018

It's time to say goodbye to Ben Percy's run of Green Arrow and what better way to do it than with Juan Ferreyra on art, Ollie on trial and the fate of Star City hanging in the balance?!?  The answer is...there is no better way!  I'm not going to sit here and gush about Juan's art (let's save that for the review itself), but I will thank him for making our little site and podcast part of this run and I hope he knows he will always have a place in our hearts for it!  Now, get on a bunch of other books so you can kill us in different and exotic locations!  



The issue opens with more kick-ass Ferreyra art, yet another Weird Science shoutout and the overwhelming feeling that Ollie is not so well loved at the moment.  Percy gives us a quick recap of the series so far and if you hadn't heard the news, you probably would still get the idea that the run is ending, not just this arc.

We go to the courtroom and Ollie and Kate Spencer tell us again that our hero is in big trouble.  Of course, that is never enough for Oliver and after making sure Kate and her son are taken care of, he decides to represent himself.  The best part of the scene is Kate putting her head in her hands in utter disbelief and despair!

look at the upper right corner!

We then head off to see Emiko in the hospital with Dinah and the trial is too much to watch and you know what that means...Black Canary music time.  Again, it's a nice reminder of Dinah's DC YOU roots, but having her sing her new song, "Rebirth" is almost a bit too much.  Plus, Emi should really be watching the fate of her brother, right?  The scene does end with Wendy Poole showing up to take it to the streets and fight the good fight.

We get to the trial next and it goes back and forth between Ollie being accused of being a murderer and a piece of shit and Ollie agreeing with the later, but insisting he is a reformed piece of shit (is that a piece of turd then?), but not being a murderer at all.  The best part, though, is seeing the Ninth Circle trying to play their games behind the scenes, but it all being saved by the Justice League.  I'm pretty sure some of the things they did were very illegal, but hey, I'm no rocket surgeon and I'm certainly no attorney!

It continues with Oliver using the trial as a way to turn the tables on the Ninth Circle and even though it was pretty obvious that Wendy Poole would arrive soon, I kept having a weird idea that Percy would end his run with Oliver Queen in jail and Lanzing and Kelly (who are taking over for a bit in a real jam.  Percy must be a nicer person than me!  By the way, Wendy arrives and the trial ends with a lot less impact than it deserved after the extended lead-up to it.

The issue then goes into "end the run" mode with Oliver talking about the great changes he's going to make, Star City going back to being good, old Seattle and references from the entire series being made.  We then end with an awesome looking group shot, a declaration of what Green Arrow has become and what he will be going forward and a final page that brings it all back to the beginning before moving on.

I am not going to say this issue didn't feel rushed because it did.  The entire run was a setup for the Trial of the Century and it ends up over in a couple of pages.  However, Ben Percy stays true to his characters and wraps it all up in the limited space he had.  I would imagine that switching over to a monthly schedule messed up some greater plans and I can't help but wonder if the end of his run came as a surprise to him, but even if it didn't, ending with a focus on how great Green Arrow is was a nice touch.  

Now I get to do my gushing...Juan's art was awesome here and I know that he's been working with some crazy deadlines as of late, but it never shows.  He is my favorite artist at DC right now and it's only 98% because he puts us in his books.  This book looks incredible and I can't wait to see where he goes next.  That's a hint Mr. DC!  Give him so much work that he doesn't know what to do!!!!

Bits and Pieces:

Part of me wants to yell that this was a rushed ending that didn't pay off enough for all the setup we've gotten since Rebirth started, but I'll muzzle that part a bit.  Yes, this finale felt rushed, but Ben Percy also used it as a way to show how much he loves Green Arrow and it rubbed off on me a bit as well.  Because of that, and the awesome art by Juan Ferreyra, this is an odd finale that can be read by anyone with even a little liking for the character.  Sure, those who've been here from the start will get more out of it, but maybe picking it up will make you want to go back a dive in from the beginning.  I'll never say that's a bad thing!

7.0/10